♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
(Bob claps)
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Okay we gotta move along today, Brad,
we've got a lot to cover.
- You bet.
- Pinched nerve, spinal decompression at home.
We're gonna show you how to stop neck,
shoulder and arm pain when it's coming from your neck.
- Right.
- And we're gonna show you by doing basically traction,
right? - Right.
- Which is, yeah, decompression,
spinal decompression, traction, basically the same thing.
We've got some good options you can do at home,
but these are things you really need to know
what you're doing. - Right.
- They're simple, but we have some key things,
and if there's any question-
- You want to look out for 'em.
- Yeah, go to a therapist and then you know
what they're going to talk to you about.
- Right, and by the way, if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on how to stay healthy, fit,
pain-free and we upload every day.
Also, if you don't know this already,
we're having a contest over at Bob and Brad at Facebook.
We're giving away a mattress.
- A nice mattress.
- Yeah, SleepOvation mattress, beautiful mattress.
All you have to do is, there's a post.
If you go over there, it's the first post you'll see.
You just have to like it and make a comment on it
and you're in the contest.
- There you go.
Yeah, you don't have to write a book, just a couple words.
- Yeah, just say you like Bob (whispers).
- And Brad. - Brad, yeah.
(both laugh)
- Anyways, Bob, let's go on.
- So what are we doing?
- Well, spinal decompression.
If you've got neck pain, pain typically in the shoulder
and the back side of the shoulder
is where it presents itself.
And then down the arm, some numbness, tingling
that may go to the elbow. - Burning.
- Yep, all the way up into the fingers.
There's a good chance it's from a pinched nerve
almost in your lower neck, okay?
Now a simple way to test, to see if some decompression
or traction is gonna work is,
why don't you have a seat, Bob?
- Sure.
- There you go.
- So I'm getting pain.
- Yep, so scooch your bottom back in the chair.
Nice, I always tell this to my patients, good posture.
And I'm gonna take my hands like this.
Now everything we do throughout this whole video
with the neck is gentle.
We're not doing anything aggressive whatsoever.
So Bob has pain, tingling going down his arm
and I'll go like this and I'll go gently
and I'll pull up and say,
Bob, do you feel any changes when I do that?
- I can't talk cause you were pulling my- (Brad laughs)
Yeah, it felt better, I felt a little relief.
- And I'm not doing very much, right Bob?
- No, you're not.
- And that's all you're doing.
You're not going to get your whole body into lifting
and try and lift the person off the chair. (laughing)
It's a very gentle traction, okay?
And then also I'll go from the top down
and I'm not gonna put my weight into it,
just with one hand and I'm gonna gently push down.
- Ow, ow, ow.
- And if that makes it worse,
then, you know, there's a very positive sign
something's going on in the neck.
Now, if this makes it worse, pushing down makes it worse,
but this doesn't change it at all, doesn't make it better,
I probably would not do any more traction.
You know, maybe as a therapist, investigate it more.
But at home, I wouldn't even consider it.
It's gotta be very clear, a little bit of pressure,
"Oh, it feels good" right away,
then we're gonna go to step two.
So in a seated position, a little bit of traction here
makes everything feel better.
Then you can go to the over-the-door traction unit.
The nice thing about this is it's at-home
and it's really inexpensive. - Very inexpensive.
- What are they, less than 20 or something like that?
- Right, last time I looked, it was around $20.
Sometimes less, sometimes more,
depending where you buy it from online.
- A little difficult to set up.
- Yeah it's not bad, but you know, we've got it set up
here on the wall, but typically you go over a door.
- Right, it's set up to go over the top of the door.
- Right, and that works very convenient.
That part's easy.
You have to get the rope and then there's a weight
for the traction and this is kind of nice
that you put water in it and it tells you
how many pounds, like right now
we've got six pounds of water there.
- [Bob] Right, gotcha.
- Typically, I'll start at about 2, 4,
5 or 6 pounds with a person.
Now this, you can do by yourself.
- [Bob] This is where it gets complicated.
(Brad laughs)
- It is a little easier with two people.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- Before I did it, and after you do it for a while,
I've had patients that use this.
- [Bob] Yeah, once it gets hooked up-
- Could you hook me up, Bob?
- [Bob] I mean, for one thing, it has to,
you know, the Velcro has to be set for your head.
You know, for your chin and jaw and you know-
- Right here.
- [Bob] Yeah, he already did that.
- There.
And it's comfortable.
It really is comfortable, I've got enough pressure on there.
Now you're going to add weight.
- [Bob] So now we have this set up.
So it's pretty much just bringing the head straight up.
Because some people kind of do
a little forward flexion or a little extension.
- Right.
- [Bob] I think that the the safest thing
is just to go ahead and straight up.
- Right, I mean you could turn the chair around,
facing the door.
And see which way it gives the better results.
But once again, you're only gonna do this
is when the pressure is on, things feel clearly better.
It's a good feeling.
I start my patients out at five minutes
as long as it feels good.
Then I'll take it off and see how it feels
after the weight is off.
So we'll simply just take it off, let the weight go down.
And if it still feels good,
I say, "Go home, come back tomorrow."
And if it feels good for the rest of the day,
then I'll go up to 10 minutes and build up to 15 minutes.
But each time I make sure it feels good
while you're doing it and afterwards,
not just for a few minutes, but for the rest of the day.
- [Bob] Or even if it gives you relief for an hour.
- Right, right.
- As long as it's not, if it feels worse after
then it's obviously a red flag and we're not gonna-
- Usually doesn't happen, but you have to make sure.
- Do you wanna show, Brad, how you can try it with a towel?
- Sure. - I mean.
- Yeah, you can simply take a towel,
roll it up as such, I got some tape on there.
Go around the back of the head
and we're gonna pull on that occipital there
and we're gonna go straight up like this.
And once again, how does that look, huh?
That's kind of scary.
- [Bob] The problem is, generally,
if you're having pain down the arm,
so that's why sometimes you have to grab it with one hand.
- Yeah. - Like that.
- [Bob] Or have someone pull on it for you.
- Right.
This is one of those things that it's not very practical
because how long can you hold it?
- [Bob] Right.
- Your arms get sore, whatever.
- And you have a sore arm already.
- Right, right.
- I mean, people do it laying down too.
And they pull, but-
- Sure, that's a little easier, but if you don't have this,
another option is, you can do this at home,
is use the Saunders device.
- Yeah, now that I wouldn't spend money on this
unless you were getting some relief on an inexpensive one.
Cause this is $300.
- Right.
- So it's expensive, but it works very well.
- Yeah, it is very convenient.
It works much better than this.
You can lay down comfortably.
Why don't you lay down once, Bob?
- You going to put it in place and I can-
- No, lay down, Bob.
He's not listening to me again.
(Bob laughs)
Now what-
- I practice at a home, not listening to my wife.
(both laugh)
- Okay, you can go right to that.
What I'll do is, I'll take my hands like this.
I go right under the, behind the ears
on the occipital bones there.
That's those bones right there.
And I'll just gently pull out.
And if that gives relief and they, Bob would say,
Bob, does that feel good?
- Yeah, that's starting to feel better.
- Okay, and it feels better in the arm?
- Yes. - Okay.
- Now actually, I'll hold this for up to a minute
and my fingers will get pretty tired.
And if it feels good for a minute, I'm saying,
let's get the Saunders traction out.
So...
This device right here, why don't you,
might have to scooch down a little bit, Bob,
it takes up a little bit of space.
Now this adjusts.
I'm not gonna go through the adjustments
but there's some thumb screws here.
So you adjustments.
- Yeah, this would be a whole different animal to,
you know, demonstrate.
We're just gonna kind show you today what it can do.
- [Brad] Right, we actually do have another video
that goes through the complete use of this.
And you can, you know, if you go Bob and Brad
Saunder's cervical traction, you can get that up.
So it's got a nice little pneumatic...
- Pump. - Pump in here.
- You wanna pump it up, Bob, and-
- Sure.
- Liz, can you zoom in here?
And we're gonna watch this separate here,
which is gonna offer that traction
or the decompression on his neck.
- So on the pump here, it says, "Hold pump and release."
So I'm putting it to "pump."
And then I'm gonna go ahead and start pumping.
So it actually, it gives me both directions
when I pull it and when I push it, it's pumping.
- [Brad] Sure, so he's getting some movement there.
This is nice and I have my patients do it to themselves
so they feel comfortable with how much pressure.
Typically I start between 10 and 15 pounds
and there's a gauge on there.
That, oftentimes, is enough to get some response,
positive response.
- So I now put it on hold.
So I can hold the position that I'm in.
- [Brad] And then you just relax.
I do the same thing.
I go for five minutes
as long as it continually feels comfortable.
Sometimes these pads get a little uncomfortable
on that bone there but you have to just use your judgment,
as long as the neck, shoulder and arm,
particularly if the arm is-
- Feeling better. - Symptoms go away there,
that's a really good sign.
Go for five minutes.
See how it lasts afterwards.
If it still feels good for, you know, an hour or two
or longer afterwards, then I'll go up to 10 minutes.
And maybe the next day up to 15,
typically not more than 15 minutes.
- So on the gauge I can see right here,
if you read it, it's at 11 pounds right now.
So that may be more than you would recommend
to start off with, huh?
- [Brad] Well, it depends on the, you know, a bigger person-
- I mean, it feels good to me.
- [Brad] Yeah, if it feels good and the arm feels good,
everything feels good, I'll hold it there.
I've had people go up to 20 pounds,
but usually not more than that.
Although in the instructions they say more than that,
I like to be conservative.
It's gotta feel good, good, good.
Everything should be good, positive responses.
And I've had people buy these
and use them at home long-term.
- Yeah and there's an ejection button on here.
Push this and it ejects me up. (Brad laughs)
No, I'm joking.
- Okay.
- All right, I'm gonna go ahead and release it.
- There you go.
- So I turn it to that and now it's releasing.
- Yep, it just automatically goes down nice and gently.
Take the head strap off.
You don't have to tighten that down
over your forehead very much at all.
- [Bob] And they've got a nice little-
- [Brad] Nice kit for it.
- So do I have a mark on my forehead now?
- Yeah, yeah you got a mark.
You got a few extra wrinkles, Bob.
No, it doesn't do that at all.
So there you go, you got cervical decompression,
traction, whatever you may want to call it.
Some options that you can do at home.
Once again, Bob,
this is just one step forward to fixing everything.
- Yeah, we can just about fix it,
we can fix just about anything except for...?
- A broken heart.
- But we're working on it. - There you go.
- I don't know if there could be heart decompression.
- Yeah, there's compressions for the heart
when somebody has- - There you go!
Yeah, that could probably help that broken heart.
- Yeah, boy, we're really thinking.
- There you go.
We'll do that in the next chapter.